The Registration and Travel Account, which contains the funds that allow Registered Student Organizations to travel to conferences and competitions, is projected to be at less than 3 percent after Thursday's Student Government Association Senate meeting.
The Conference Registration and Travel Committee within the SGA Senate is responsible for allocating funds to RSOs and students and has seen an increase in demand.
"Typically this time of year demand for allocations goes down, but the past two weeks we saw just a little bit more allocations than we had been seeing in the beginning of April," said Fernando Gonzales, the chair of the CRT Committee.
The account is part of the 2009-2010 Activity & Service Fee budget and will be replenished at the beginning of the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
SGA Comptroller Shane Chism said that if the account runs out, students will have to wait until next fiscal year to request funding.
SGA officials have differing opinions on whether the account will actually run out of money, however.
Gonzales said that he thinks the account can make it through the next 10 weeks.
"Demand fluctuates a lot and seeing as summer A is typically slower than other semesters and other summer sessions," Gonzales said. "We shouldn't see any more bills, and I believe $8,000 can get us through June. Of course, that can change if everyone rushes to the next CRT meeting."
Chism said he thinks the account will run out.
"Based on the current spending trends, I do anticipate that the Senate Registration and Travel Account will prematurely hit a balance of zero dollars," Chism said. "If that does indeed happen, the senate as well as the executive branch will need to discuss the best option to rectify the situation."
Funds from the Registration and Travel Account come in two forms — allocations and bills.
Allocations can only be used for funding amounts of $1,500 or less and have a much shorter process, so students can receive money more quickly.
Organizations looking for more than $1,500 must submit a bill, which goes through a multi-step process before being signed and approved. The entire bill process takes eight to 10 weeks from the time the organization drafts a bill with their senator, to the time they can receive their funding.
Gonzales said that organizations that need allocations for June should come to the next CRT meeting on May 17, but otherwise should wait until the end of June to come in.
Organizations trying to get a bill should still come in during the normal timeframe to ensure that there is ample time for it to pass through senate and get signed.
Chism said he looked into several potential solutions to the problem, one of which was taking bills and allocations for trips that are taking place after July 1 out of the next budget.
He said that it is not possible to do so because the new budget has not been approved yet.
"Until Dr. Hitt signs off on the budget passed by the senate, we don't have any authorization to start making assumptions about what will be in the budget come July 1," Chism said.
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